My almost 8-year-old son Gregory is at a stage in life when he is impressionable and his recreation time and activities seem to be driven by a strong desire to outdo anything his friends or classmates can come up with. This usually includes nagging requests for visits to the trendy shopping malls of
Nairobi, go-karting, eating out experiences and even visits to exotic locales during the holidays, etc.
With this in mind, I decided to try and introduce him to recreational activities and hobbies that can add value to his life and be a talking point of his life away from the narrow materialistic interests he has been exposed to so far.
An internet search for appropriate hobbies for a 7 to 8-year-old took me to places and activities that would not be practical in our country, city or neighbourhood. So, without fishing, roller-skating, sledding, ice-skating and water skiing on the list, I was reduced to games, magic, pets, camping, kites, cooking and collecting. I took a fancy for collecting as a possible activity to augment all the other activities that I listed as possible activities season, funds and time allowing.
Since collecting can be done from the comfort of our home and all year round, I spent some time thinking of something collectable. Coins were furthest from my mind, but a visit to my mum’s and an accidental look into a drawer with mementos from my past, yielded a mathematical set I once owned full of coins. That container had passed from my possession to my younger brother after the interest had worn off. That was how I decided to introduce Gregory to coin collecting.
Having retrieved the coins, Greg was ready for his newest hobby and in the family tradition, he would ensure safe keeping and nourishing for posterity. It contained 106 coins from 25 different countries (Uganda, Tanzania (41), Rwanda, Burundi, UK (12), USA (3), UAE, Belgium, Austria, South Africa, Botswana, Germany, Canada, Yugoslavia, Mauritius, Italy, India, France, Australia, China, Zambia, Holland, Zimbabwe, Portuguese Republic of Mozambique and Kenya (5).
On the strange and freaky front, there is also a 5 Ugandan shilling telephone token, some Kenyan 10 cents shaped into the 7-sided 5-shilling coin. There is also a 5 cent coin cut and painted in silver obviously to pass it off as a 1 shilling silver coin. I have contributed the new 40-shilling 40th independence anniversary coin because it qualifies as a collectable in view of its commemorative and rare pedigree.
On the unknown front, I have about ten coins that require some homework, either because they are in a script unknown to me or their lower denomination is unknown for now. I will help the young man to decipher them, which should be interesting for both of us. There is a Quest-Africaine coin which is not attributed to any country- me thinks it’s from some currency federation. More homework.
Gregory took to the coin-collecting hobby like a fish in water. He was fascinated by my brother’s story on how we came to so many coins (we used to run a kiosk and our customers would try to pass the coins as genuine Kenyan currency. Some we caught, some got the better of us. Our experiences at the kiosk were nothing short of life transforming and insightful- a story for another day).
On his request, I have also bought him an atlas to help him locate countries of the world. Every once in a while after he is done with his homework, he will pull the coins out for us to discuss one coin, denomination or country of origin in details. We are learning a lot of history, geography, politics and economics as we discuss the collection. He wants to know why Queen Elizabeth’s portrait is on more than one country’s coins. That leads us to the story of the British Commonwealth, etc.
Lately he is also coming up with creative ways of increasing the size and variety of the collection. For instance the other day he attended a friend’s birthday party and got promises of coins from Ghana and Maldives from two boys whose fathers are working in those countries. Although I did not openly enthuse, I was glad that his hobby is something he finds worthy of discussing with his age mates.
I have already vowed to seek the pre-independence (British East Africa ) coins that used to have a hole in the middle. There was a time when they were freely available around. I will also talk to friends and colleagues traveling to different corners of the world to contribute to our hobby. How about embassies? Pen pals? What about taxi and tour guides who interact with visiting friends? How about the internet? Blogging rings like KBW could also come in handy. I think it will be an interesting journey for my boy…and the boy in me!
No comments:
Post a Comment